Help Me Come Up With a Plan For a Fishless Coral / Invert Tank

[nuxx]

Hey guys,

I've finally decided to go fishless with our 150 gallon frag tank.

For 72 days the tank will act as a QT for new coral and inverts until they move into the display.

To be effective as a QT, no fish can be kept in there.

Tank is 150 gallons at 60x36x16" with a 75 gallon sump and large DCS300 Reef Octopus Skimmer. Running two Jebao RW15s in sync, two DCT4000 returns and a GFO reactor. Lighting is 3 165 Watt Full Spectrum Dimmable LED eBay black boxes on a timer.

With the lack of fish, could you guys please help me come up with a husbandry procedure including what foods and how often to feed.

Right now I'm about to add about 20 frags of SPS, LPS, Zoas, etc... along with 40 Mexican Turbo Snails, a Seahare and 3 stars (Blue and Orange Linkias and a Sand Sifting Star).

As for food, I have coral wise:
Rod's Coral, Rod's Original, Coral Frenzy

For the inverts I was thinking sheets of nori, some flake food along with the Rod's original.

It seemed the last batch of coral and inverts just barely made it through the 72 days, they didn't thrive.

Looking for how to make this tank thrive fishless and possibly even turn it into a grow out tank, not just a minimum 72 day QT tank.

Thanks!

Here are some pictures:

 

[nuxx]

Restocking the tank now for the next round of QT.

Mexican Turbo Snails are finally back in season, so picked up 40.

Going to try to keep a Blue and Orange Linckia Stars as well as a Sand Sifting Star and Sea Hare through a 72-90 day QT period too. Will more than likely need to feed a sheet of nori a day.

Also got a few new acros and misc other corals. Will be picking up more next week.

 

[Dmorty217]

I think with what you have that small pellets will work for everything but the SPS. For that I believe one of the other products you mentioned will suffice. Zoas, linkias, CUC and LPS all will take small pellets

 

[deleau]

I'm still in the research phase of this for my tank, but have you considered dosing Amino acids (beyond what's in Coral Frenzy) and/or Zooxanthellae?

A local friend swears by Red Sea and AcroPower for amino acids, and another friend doses zooxanthellae in her tank. Both have thriving corals.

My corals are doing well, not necessarily "great", but I'm not sure if dosing either would help me. Just a suggestion.

 

[nuxx]

I think with what you have that small pellets will work for everything but the SPS. For that I believe one of the other products you mentioned will suffice. Zoas, linkias, CUC and LPS all will take small pellets

Thanks

Have a lot of small pellets to choose from. Didn't think about that!

 

[nuxx]

I'm still in the research phase of this for my tank, but have you considered dosing Amino acids (beyond what's in Coral Frenzy) and/or Zooxanthellae?

I'll order some

 

[tripdad]

Make sure to run carbon as long as a sea hare is in there. I have been looking in to adding one and found that when spooked they can emit an "ink" that needs to be filtered out with carbon

 

[nuxx]

Make sure to run carbon as long as a sea hare is in there. I have been looking in to adding one and found that when spooked they can emit an "ink" that needs to be filtered out with carbon

Good idea. I hope with just snails and starfish it won't be spooked though.

Hopefully if it makes it through QT, there is enough volume in the big tank to absorb anything it can emit.

 

[Dmorty217]

Make sure to run carbon as long as a sea hare is in there. I have been looking in to adding one and found that when spooked they can emit an "ink" that needs to be filtered out with carbon

Haven't ever seen this happen but I suppose it could. They say the same about sea apples but I have had one die and it didn't kill anything in the tank and I didn't run carbon

 

[Bent]

Sea hares will ink, but the ink is non toxic. It's also a last resort for the animal and unless it gets stuck in a power head, you'll likely never see it happen.

 

[tripdad]

"Haven't ever seen this happen but I suppose it could. They say the same about sea apples but I have had one die and it didn't kill anything in the tank and I didn't run carbon "

"Sea hares will ink, but the ink is non toxic. It's also a last resort for the animal and unless it gets stuck in a power head, you'll likely never see it happen. "


This is good news, thanks.

 

[nuxx]

Stars and Sea Hare are in the tank.

Orange Linckia is just roaming around, the Blue is climbing the glass and the Sand Sifting is down in the sand.

The Sea Hare just looks lost lol

I tried to drop him down by some nori.

 

[Sk8r]

I'm not fishless, but when I get things going I can grow lps like crazy.
I keep my params as in my sig line, I currently have them midway down the tank under a Radion Pro at 50% on the Radiance program; and I don't really feed the corals per se. I grind up jumbo dried krill to a powder in a blender, and feed that to everybody, along with the fishfood. The krill seems to do it for the corals---I designed it for the fish. I also maintain a load of bristleworms, having read some theory that bristleworm poo is exactly the right size for sps coral intake. Dunno, but they clean up the excess. In reality I run a damsel tank, but I think you could mod some of those to suit. The advantage of krill powder is that it really breaks up and floats around a long time.

 

[nuxx]

Good idea, I'll look into it

Also with the Linckias, need some random food in there for them.

 

[nuxx]

Sand sifting star didn't make it.

He was damaged badly in the bag, missing an arm and not very responsive.

Snails, Sea Hare and Linckias seem fine.

Found out some of the frags I picked up came from a system with ich.

Planning on doing around 90 days in the frag tank without any fish, so hopefully enough life cycles will pass and all will be fine.

Ordered a little 24 watt UV sterilizer to run in the frag tank as well. Guessing it couldn't hurt and might get a few of the parasites that might be in the water column.

Did a Bayer dip and two rinses before the frags went in the tank, so unless encrusted, hoping a small chance ich even made it in.

Anyway, never know what coral or inverts can bring into the tank. Doing 72+ days without fish and also running UV will hopefully be enough

 

[Wonton Soup]

Doing 72+ days without fish and also running UV will hopefully be enough

Honestly, it seems like overkill. With that being said, it certainly should be enough and I know how much it sucks to watch a display tank lose to a parasite. Maybe there's no such thing as overkill.

It will be interesting to see how corals respond to a lack of fish waste and food.

 

[Bent]

How bout a tube nem for some more wavy movement?

I don't think they move much, if at all. You could stick one in some PVC in the corner.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I'd get an urchin instead of the sea hare. Just my 2 cents!

 

[Sk8r]

One joy of a fishless reef---ich just doesn't matter.

 

[nuxx]

I'd get an urchin instead of the sea hare. Just my 2 cents!

The display is acrylic. I'm too nervous to add one.

One joy of a fishless reef---ich just doesn't matter.

Yeah I'm going to put in the UV sterilizer today... so I hope it aids in the 72 day+ fishless period for killing off ich. I know both systems I got the frags from had ich in them.

Nothing else wet is going in the tank for 72-90 days.

Added 20+ frags last weekend as well.

I'll try to get some pictures later